APOLLONIA POILANE: We often overlook rye.
We see it as a very sturdy flour and don't think of the richness
that its very coarse and rough appearance gives you.
I find this bread to be very floral, very tasty.
It's wonderful with butter and honey.
There's an infinite possibility of flavors and tastes
in a slice like this.
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The rye breads we make at Poilane
have been the same since my grandfather.
We make a plain rye sourdough loaf and a rye and currant
spread.
The recipe we're going to do is a plain recipe.
I think you really need to master the plain dough,
get a sense and feel for what it smells like,
how it feels under your hand before you
expand into different variations on the loaf.
Naturally, rye has less gluten than wheat,
so it also makes for bread that's much
denser than the wheat breads.
The loaves are generally a little smaller, not as risen.
When I think in American terms, I
think of the Northern European or Jewish rye breads that
often have caraway in them.
They are these very dense, very moist, almost pumpernickel
types of breads.
Whereas when I think of rye with the French mentality,
I think of this grain that's used typically in the regions
where the soil is much poorer because the rye grain requires
so much less from the fields, and so it's
much easier to grow.
And so in the poorer regions, you will have breads of rye.
This recipe is in between easy and hard,
and this is because the flour tends to absorb a lot of water.
So it's a very sticky dough at first.
Because the dough is so coarse, because it's
so rough and tough, it's actually a great dough
to learn how to shape a loaf.
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If you've done the sourdough starter
and have kept about a cup of it, you
can use the leftover for your rye recipe.
It should be just enough.
In this recipe, I not only use the sourdough,
but I supplement it with a little bit of yeast.
The rye flour is a very hard flour to have expand,
so I just do this to facilitate the job.
Here, I'm using a mixture of 70% rye flour and 30% bread flour
to make the dough easier to work with.
As you develop your baking practice,
I encourage you to work up to 100% rye flour.
So we have sourdough, a little bit of yeast.
We have some sea salt-- coarse sea salt--
flour, and water.
I'm going to put the sourdough, the salt, and the yeast,
but I'm going to activate a little bit the yeast by pouring
a little bit of water on it-- say, a tablespoon--
and waiting a couple of minutes, just enough time
to put in the other ingredients.
I'm going to do the same thing with the salts.
Now, the reason why I soak the salts in water
is just because I want to dissolve the salt.
It's just that it's such a small batch,
you don't want to wind up with a pocket of salt.
We have my active dry yeast, which
I've activated with water.
Once you mix it, it starts creating air bubbles,
and that's a good sign that it's ready to roll.
I'm going to start putting about a cup of my sourdough starter.
There we go.
Put that aside.
Then I put the salt mixture.
Now, a quick trick here is to make
sure you put the yeast on one side and the salt on the other.
Because otherwise, one anuls the work of the other.
I put the flour.
I'm pouring to water on the sides,
and this is just to help me detach the dough.
I'm just going to put a little bit of flour on my hands
and start working it.
So I'm using my hand as a scooper,
and my first gestures are really about delving into the dough
and bringing it together to create a homogeneous mass.
It's very sticky, but I can take it in my hand
and squeeze it off without impacting
its fermentation thereafter.
So where as there are some recipes
that I will use a standalone mixer
to make sure that I have a light hand,
here, I actually want to bring, forcefully,
the ingredients together.
I use one hand on the sides and the other one
to scoop together the ingredients, to blend them in,
to knead the dough.
I know that this dough has come together
when I see a homogeneous mass.
I have this oatmeal texture.
It's very wet.
You can hear it being very sticky-ish.
That's what deters a lot of people from this dough.
But actually, this is the fun part of it,
that it's very easy to wean off your hands thereafter.
So I'm using the dough scraper just to scrape it off my hands.
Try to refrain from using water at this point
because you are throwing off the balance here of the dough.
My dough has come together.
What I'm going to do is I'm going
to turn this dough onto the working surface,
just to bring it into one big mass.
So flour your working surface.
Use the excess to dry out your hands a little bit.
There we go.
And scrape it down.
It feels heavy, and I'm really holding part of the bowl
against myself to help me grab it.
I'm going to dry out my hands once again.
I'm going to flour the surface on which I'm going to rest it
for a couple of seconds.
This next gesture is just about finishing off the kneading.
And so the first thing that I like to do--
and this is not a baker's trick.
It's just my own little habit.
I like to turn over the dough.
And if it's resisting like here, that's fine.
Just scrape it out a little bit, and re-flour your surface.
That will definitely happen your first times.
Because rye absorbs so much water,
you can flour your surface.
Most recipes, we say don't over-flour
because otherwise, you're throwing off
the balance in the recipes.
But I really want to not be afraid here
because the rye is actually working in our favor.
It's very sticky, and that's why you need
to sort of work fast on it.
So I poured it out, and really, immediately, flour your hands.
Toss it over on one end.
And this is when you're going to start
getting a sense of what it feels like-- even just hold it
in your hands.
And because this dough is so coarse,
this is a dough where you can allow yourself
to take a couple of more minutes to do it or be a little too
heavy-handed on it.
I look at this, and I try and imagine that this is a flower.
We have the center in mind, and these are all petals--
or imaginary petals.
And I'm trying to just fold the petals into the center,
as if I was closing the flower.
So I'm going to do that all around.
And if it sticks on the bottom, not to worry,
just pick it up, flour your surface, and start over again.
The kneading actually activates the whole fermentation process.
And in my view, it gives the dough
an energy that will eventually translate
into your style of baking.
So I like to lead with force, and I'm just
bringing these petals in the center to give my loaf of bread
a sense of unity.
Once you've circled around your flower, then I'll just,
one last time, turn it over and just tuck it a little bit
and bring it like this, onto a surface
to rest for about an hour and a half before we shape it
and proof it in a mold.
So in this first proofing, I leave it on a working surface.
I'm covering this dough with a cloth
so that it's in a draft-free space
and the crust doesn't become dry.
In this first rise, you're looking for a time cue,
not so much an expansion.
Because the rye flour, having less gluten,
doesn't expand as much.
And so take the hour and a half at 20 to 25 degrees
Celsius in a draft-free space as your cue.
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Our loaf has risen for about an hour and a half.
It's expanded.
But whereas in the wheat loaves, you're
looking for an expansion that's around double in size,
here it'll be much less, anywhere between 20%, 30%,
40%--
not much more.
So we are going to uncover the loaf.
It's grown.
It can get a little dry on the top, and that's OK.
I floured my surface.
I'll flour my hands to just grab it and put it face down
on your working surface.
If you want to rise it a little longer because you don't have
signs that the dough has risen much,
you can bring it up to about two hours.
But try not to do it longer because I would be concerned
that your dough would over-ferment,
and that will tend to collapse the dough thereafter
or might even just make for a tang that's not pleasant.
So we're going to shape this loaf
and put it into our little proofing baskets.
This is where it will rise for a second time.
As you use your baskets, batch after batch,
it will develop an environment that will favor fermentation.
So don't wash those.
And if you're using a brand new basket, in that case,
just spray a little bit of water.
Throw in some flour into it.
And before I forget--
because once your hands are dirty,
you can't flour your basket--
sprinkle the sides.
I'm exaggerating it here a little,
but I'd rather you err on too much than not enough.
You can always tap down that excess flour
once you've unmolded your bread or once it's baked.
What I'm going to do here is treat this piece of dough
as if it were a ball, and I'm going to use the table
to circle it from top left to bottom right,
tucking the dough to create a ball that's perfectly shaped
and into the basket.
At this stage, the fact that we're reshaping the dough
is very much like that stage that people
have in mind when they say they punched a dough.
And actually, when I was an apprentice,
this was one of my favorite parts.
Doing it with the rye, that's such a sturdy dough,
really is satisfying because you can't go wrong.
It comes together.
But what was more satisfying is that as a baker,
you really have the feeling you're giving a breath, a feel,
a life to this dough.
And this is why I love, love, love shaping doughs.
So as you can see, it's sticky.
That's the main thing here.
And so I'm taking this dough, and I'm
going to bring it on the sides.
And I'm using my left hand here.
If you're a lefty, just use the inverse indications.
And just tucking it under.
If your surface is too floured, then it will tend to slip.
That's OK.
It's cracking on the top.
No worries, that's just because it's
going through the little crust that had occurred
from the first fermentation.
What I'm doing here is giving it a specific shape.
Although it doesn't have a perfect surface,
that's absolutely fine.
Do not worry.
The loaf will do its job in the oven.
I take it from the bottom, and I turn it into the basket.
I cover it up.
And I let it rise for an hour and a half
in a draft-free space.
What I'm looking for here is a rise
where the dough will expand to fit the whole mold.
It can go a little beyond.
That's not a problem.
It won't go much more than two fingers from the top.
Covering it up and ready to wait.
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So here we go.
And here, I see a loaf that's on the lower rise side.
That's OK.
You've seen it expanded because the key has opened up
a little bit.
It just hasn't expanded that much more.
At this point, I wouldn't wait longer.
It's been an hour and a half.
Push it to two if you feel but no more.
With this loaf, you really don't want to get to the point
where the sourdough and the rye become tangy, sour,
and over-fermented.
So in this recipe, I'm using a nonstick sheet here.
You could use parchment paper.
If you feel like baking this bread in a cocotte,
that's absolutely fine.
In fact, baking it in the Dutch oven
can give it some extra lift.
I'm doing this on the baking sheet
to illustrate that this loaf, because it doesn't expend all
that much, it's absolutely fine to bake bare on a baking sheet.
The idea is you're going to do this somewhat forceful movement
where are you going to--
I'm going to use my hand here, but just
for the demonstration--
turn it over.
So this is the movement you're going to do.
Now, I have my loaf.
It's got volume, but it will be sturdy.
It's not very airy.
If your dough sticks to the basket,
stick the side onto one end, and use your hand
to delicately try and scrape off the dough
so that it falls onto the baking sheet.
If this happens, it's just that you haven't floured your basket
enough or that it's been so humid that the dough has
absorbed all of the flour.
Maybe your dough structure on the top won't be as beautiful.
In that case, just change your scoring.
Scoring the dough helps to give one last human intervention
before it gets baked.
And you want to do this because we're all
about bringing the starter that we've
bred up to its full potential.
The scoring helps with the dough to expand fully.
If your dough has under-proofing,
a deeper slash will help give it more energy.
Conversely, if your dough has over-proofing,
a very light scoring is necessary
so that you don't let the dough collapse.
So to score dough, you really need a very, very sharp tool.
You can use a knife.
But honestly, a razor blade is your best friend.
So here, I'm going to score a simple hash.
I'm just going to cut through the dough.
Make sure that your blade is fresh.
If it's a little old, then it won't cut through it as easily.
You can see that the dough slowly
opens up as you slash through.
This is a great loaf to try and test different scorings.
Because it's so sturdy, it will actually
be very resilient to more scoring.
Whereas the wheat loaf, really err
on the side of something light.
My loaf is ready to go into the oven.
It's going to bake for at least an hour.
You really want this bread to be baked at heart so that it
can keep for four to five days.
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The bread is out of the oven, and you're
going to let it cool down on a rack
until you're able to use your bare hands.
One great way to tell that the bread is finished baking
is the knock test.
So you put the bread on the side,
and you knock on the bottom.
Now, that sound-- that--
like as if you were knocking on a door--
is an indication that it's well-baked.
If there's a muffle to the sound,
then you can bake the bread for a little longer.
Even if it's slightly overcooked--
and you can tell this mainly by the cracks--
that's fine.
I would rather you have a slightly overdone crust,
but that the crumb at heart is well baked.
The knock test on the rye and on the sourdough loaf
really sound the same.
And that's because you have the same crumb structure.
So you're going to let it cool on the rack for about an hour.
That should be enough for it to be cut through and devoured.
When you're cutting this loaf, you
want to make sure that you have it at arm's length.
The crust of the rye bread tends to be rather coarse and thick,
so be aware that your knife might have a tendency to slip.
You can help yourself by keeping your elbow and arm straight.
Now, this is wonderful because it's just flowing through.
If it's a little resistant, just do a first small insert
to help anchor your cuts thereafter.
All right, this is beautiful.
It's got these nice floral flavors.
This is a beautiful rise.
It doesn't look like it's a very expansive bread, and it's not.
The crumb is very thick.
Because this loaf is still ever so slightly warm,
the inside has these little balls of fresh dough.
But here, what I'm looking for is a regular crumb structure,
no major air pockets, and just this nice, smooth shape,
even though you can see that the slice won't be perfect.
And that's just because of the scoring.
Now, once you've cut this loaf in half,
I like to put it on the side to cut a quarter.
[KNIFE SCRAPING AGAINST BREAD]
And then start slicing through.
It just creates a first little slot to anchor your cuts.
And you can make it through the thick crust
and have a perfect slice.
A bread like this one will store for about five days.
You can probably get it up to a week--
or if you're in a very hot and humid environment,
maybe more three to five days.
Keep it in a piece of linen.
What you're trying to do here is to protect it
from drying out, yet not creating
an airtight environment that will foster moldiness.
When I look at this slice, what I like about it is that there's
no major air pockets here.
They're speckled throughout the slice.
If I cut through it, there's a sense
of the bread being very well kept together, so it's not
overly sticky or flaky.
A little butter or a little butter and honey
really makes for a delicious morning tartine,
but it can also be a great loaf to go with fish or even
with certain meats.
The real test when you're baking your bread
is to see how much you enjoy it with a little bit of butter
on it.
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Delicious.
This slice is absolutely fabulous.
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